Manganese, a nutrient, serves as a normal component of both plants and animals, so it is present in food. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the typical human ingests 3.8 mg of manganese per day from food. Since humans require a small amount manganese to maintain health, the amount of manganese in a normal diet sufficiently meets daily needs without ill effects.

Manganese also naturally occurs in many types of rock. The steel industry mines rocks containing high levels of manganese compounds and then uses it to produce manganese metal. They use the metal in the production of steel to improve hardness, stiffness, and strength.

Manganese is also commonly used in the production of batteries, matches, and fireworks. Manganese serves as a component in glazes, varnishes, ceramics, and fertilizers and fungicides, and as an additive in animal and poultry feed.

While safe and health in small amounts, manganese can be toxic in large amounts. The EPA considers manganese to be a "high concern" pollutant based on severe chronic toxicity.

Exposure to higher levels of manganese is most likely if one works in a factory that produces manganese metal or that uses manganese compounds to make steel or other products. Exposure in such settings usually occurs as the result of inhalation of manganese dust. In addition to factory workers, people who live near factories using or producing manganese could also face exposure to higher-than-average levels of manganese dust in the air. If manganese compounds from a factory or a hazardous waste site get into the local table water, a community may suffer from toxic over-exposure.

Welding fumes given off during the welding of iron, mild steel, or aluminum generally consist of metallic oxides generated through the heating of the metal being welded, the welding rod, or the coating of welding rods. Welders have long use manganese compounds in various welding combustibles and welding filler materials such as coated welding rods and welding rod fluxes. During the welding process, the combustible or filler containing manganese gives off manganese fumes as well as other toxic gases.

Welders are not the only workers at risk when manganese compounds are used in welding. A variety of laborers may suffer occupational exposure to manganese fumes if they work near welding or pipe fitting work. Thus, welders, pipe-fitters, electrical workers, ironworkers, steelworkers, plumbers, railroad maintenance workers, pile-drivers, millwrights, and glass manufacturers all risk manganese dust over-exposure.
For many years the medical community has known that long-term or chronic exposure to manganese fumes or dust at high concentrations can produce an irreversible syndrome involving Parkinson-like symptoms that result from damage to the central nervous system. The neurological disorder resulting from this type of manganese toxicity is known as Manganism.

Manganese miners, steel workers, welders and other workers exposed to high levels of manganese dust in the air may develop manganism. They may suffer mental and emotional disturbances, and their movements may become slow. The symptoms of manganism are similar to Parkinson's disease symptoms and may include weakness, slow and clumsy movements, difficulty breathing, and loss of coordination. Medical treatment, including drug therapy, may reduce some of the symptoms of manganism, but the brain injury manganese causes through overexposure is permanent.

Like Parkinson's, symptoms of managanism may include: muscle stiffness and soreness; fatigue and weakness; speech disturbances; loss of coordination; abnormal walk; tremors; leg cramps or weakness; fixed facial expression; impotence; difficulty breathing; difficulty swallowing; slow and clumsy movements; stooped posture; mental and emotional disturbances. Men exposed to high levels may find themselves unable to father children. Other chronic effects from inhaling high amounts of manganese include an increased incidence of cough and bronchitis and susceptibility to infectious lung disease.

Workers usually do not develop symptoms of manganism unless they have been exposed for many months or years. However, there are reports that patients have developed symptoms several years after exposure to manganese had ceased.

Several tests are available for measuring manganese in blood, urine, hair, or feces. Manganese, however, is a normal part of the body, so the test always shows the presence of some manganese. In addition, the body usually removes and expels excess manganese within a few days, making it difficult to accurately measure exposure.

Manganism or Parkinson's

Almost half a million full-time welders in the U.S. utilize manganese as an essential element in the production of steel products and steel welding electrodes. The Washington University School of Medicine researchers have concluded that welding might trigger early onset of Parkinson's disease. The research team found that some professional welders developed signs of the disease an average of 15 years earlier than the general population.

The 2001 study by medical researchers at Washington University supports the contention that a link exists between occupational exposure to the manganese fumes emitted during the use of welding rods and the early onset of Parkinson's disease in welders. The analysis of the study acknowledges that Manganism is classified as a Parkinson syndrome because Manganism shares many symptoms with Parkinson's. Despite the similarities between Parkinson syndrome and Manganism, the study suggests that distinct differences exists between the symptoms, including the brain pathology associated with Manganism and welding-related Parkinson's disease.

If you believe that you have suffered an injury, such as the onset of Parkinson's disease, as the result of manganese exposure, it is imperative that you contact a qualified attorney in order to insure that you maintain and protect your rights.